For my mom on her 91st birthday

 

Hydrangea blossoms, all from the same bush. The blue ones were picked in early August, the purple one September 6th. The goblet is courtesy of my nephew and his wife.

My mom died a little more than six months short of her 90th birthday. This was a milestone we had tacitly hoped to see her reach. Her own mother had died just a few months after her 88th birthday, while her aunt, her father's sister, had died at 90. But it was not to be.

Today would have been her 91st birthday, and I wonder what kind of shape she would be in now if she had not contracted COVID from an unmasked ambulance crew and shortly afterwards had a massive and irreversible COVID-induced stroke on Valentine's Day 2023 that resulted in her death eleven days later. I spent the last few years of her life allowing her to live as independently as possible, but in truth she was very dependent on me for many of the daily basics. Our goal had been to keep her out of a nursing home, but during her time at the Allied rehab center she very much enjoyed the attention she got from the nurses and staff there.

But it seems likely that at this point her physical diminishment, had it continued along the path it was on, would have resulted in her needing more intense and focused care than I could provide. Had she lived this long she would have experienced the deaths of two more of her beloved cats.

We all miss her and love her every day, and will will forever. I told her as much during my visit today.

UPDATE, 9/15/2024: I realized after I picked these purple-mode hydrangeas that I had not taken any photos of them on the bush when they were still blue. Today I came home after a brief drive and discovered one - or maybe two - new blue blossoms among the purple.